


Please Stay

by annasfreckles



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/F, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 10:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18193403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annasfreckles/pseuds/annasfreckles
Summary: Anna and Elsa haven't been talking for a while. Anna tries to make it up to Elsa, but it doesn't go as planned. Elsa doesn't mean to break Anna's heart, but then she didn't mean for a lot of things to happen.





	Please Stay

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be put in with the rest of my old writing in my Elsanna Tumblr Writing collection, but as I was editing it I realized... it was 15 pages long (abt 5k+!!). So instead, I felt like it would be more appropriate to post it as its own separate fic.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy it! And no, I'm not going to be continuing this one. You guys get to decide what happens after the end. ;)

 

“Anna, are you okay?”

Anna jerked awake, slumped over the counter with her cheek pressed to the glass. “Wh–what? Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.” She looked around the store; it was was completely empty. “Is it closing time already?”

Kristoff raised an eyebrow. “Uh… it’s barely even 5.”

Anna groaned. Still over an hour to go.

“I’m sorry, Kris, really, I am. Here—” She took the stack of games he was carrying and scurried over to the opposite wall. “I’ll take care of these for you.”

She started setting the games on the shelf, one by one, making sure they were placed orderly and neat. Kristoff walked up to her and leaned against the wall, his arms crossed. “Anna.”

“Hm? Yes?”

“Those are PS4 games.”

“Yeah, thanks Kristoff, I  _ can _ actually read.”

Kristoff raised both of his eyebrows this time. “Oh, can you?” He pointed to the sign above the shelves and Anna followed, face paling when she realized.

_ Xbox One. _

Anna groaned and let herself fall onto the ground. “Am I getting fired for this?”

“Fired for accidentally putting the wrong games in the wrong section at least once? Uh, no. Otherwise,  _ nobody _ would have this job.”

“No, because I’m falling asleep at the counter and doing a lousy job of doing my job.”

Kristoff sighed and knelt down next to her. “No, Anna, you’re not going fired. However, I’ve noticed you  _ have _ kinda been walking into work dead on your feet lately.”

Anna only shrugged in response. She wasn’t about to get into it.

“Have you talked to Elsa?”

Anna winced. Though, leave it to Kristoff to know the issue at hand anyways.

“It’s… nothing I can’t handle, Kris.”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. Just, you know,  _ how _ you handle it is what concerns me.”

Anna gave him a pointed look. Kristoff only returned it to her.

“Anna, you were working half-time just a few weeks ago, now all of a sudden you’re working full-time, filling in any chance you get, and from what I’ve heard, you don’t even do schoolwork at home anymore. You spend all your time at the writing labs or the library.  _ And _ that doesn’t count the times I’ve seen you at the gym, which I know isn’t the  _ only _ times you’re there.”

Anna winced. Just hearing it made her wanna lie down. But it was already unprofessional of her to be sitting on the floor. So she stood up, wobbling a bit as she regained her balance.

“I’m fine, Kris. Honest. No more sleeping at the counter or putting the PlayStation games in the Xbox section. It was a one-time fluke, it won’t happen again.”

“Anna, I’m speaking as your friend right now. Your friend who you made mud pies with in kindergarten? Your friend who was the Huck Finn to your Tom Sawyer in the fourth grade play?”

Anna had to smile at that.

“Look, just… go home and get some rest. Take the next couple days off. And when I say  _ rest, _ I don’t mean go home and bury yourself in homework or go out for a day-long walk or whatever. I mean actually  _ rest. _ Please. You’re wearing yourself thin avoiding this Elsa thing.”

Anna sighed and slumped over. The past month came crashing into her and dropped onto her shoulders like a ton of bricks. She was  _ exhausted _ … physically, and emotionally.

“What about the rest of my shift?”

Kristoff shrugged and observed the rest of the store. “Today’s kind of dead anyways… and we close in an hour. I can handle the rest from here.”

Anna frowned. “What about tomorrow? And Tuesday?”

Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Honestly, Anna, I’ll  _ handle _ it. I’ll call Flynn and Adam, see what we can work out. I’m not gonna have you working when you’re ready to keel over.” He smiled gently and patted her on the shoulder. “Just go home and rest. I’ll see you Wednesday, okay?”

Anna sighed rather shakily. The thought of spending the rest of the day wrapped up in blankets was oh-so tempting and she could feel herself drift off just thinking about it. Flashing Kristoff a tired smile, she raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, Reindeer Man, you win. I’ll go home.”

Kristoff nodded. “Good. And remember what I said—”

“I know, I know! I won’t bury myself in schoolwork, or go to the gym, or whatever, I’ll head straight home and actually get some rest. I promise.”

Kristoff nodded, satisfied. As Anna left to the back room to gather her things, he leaned over to pick up the forgotten stack of games discarded on the floor, but then called over his shoulder, “Hey, Anna?”

“Yeah?” She turned around to face him, unnerved by the very serious expression on his face.

“ _ Talk _ to her.”

Anna swallowed and nodded shakily. “Yeah… I’ll try my best.”

* * *

It was a fifteen minute ride from her work to the apartment… except it ended up being a forty-something minute ride because she fell asleep and missed her stop and didn’t wake up until much later. Stopping as soon as she could, she ran the rest of the way back home, ending up leaning against the door out of breath and still mildly panicking. Black spots started blurring out her vision and she shook her head in some vain attempt to clear her head–or at least keep from passing out on the front porch.

“That’d be a sight for Elsa to see… her girlfriend half-dead on the front porch… wouldn’t be the first time.”

Her mind snapped to full alertness once she fully grasped what she had just said.

Anna gritted her teeth and pushed it all the back of her head. Sighing, she unlocked the door and stepped inside. The apartment was nice and cool inside, the air conditioned space a welcome reprieve from the boiling southern California weather outside. Anna sighed happily, letting the door shut idly behind her as she fell to the floor and shut her eyes, a dreamy tired smile on her face. The carpet felt nice against her skin and she could feel herself drifting off into slumber.

In fact, by the way her body jerked suddenly when her phone buzzed at her, she  _ must _ have.

Muttering sleepily to herself, trying to keep her eyes open, Anna fumbled for her phone and checked the screen.

> **Kristoff:** Are you home?

Anna smiled to herself as she typed her response.

> **Anna:** Yes, Dad, I’m home.

_ Home… _

Anna looked around her apartment for a moment. It was quiet and empty; other than the sound of the ticking clock, there wasn’t a hint of life.

Anna groaned and flipped onto her back, running a hand down her face. The buzzing of her phone prevented her from getting too caught up in her thoughts.

> **Kristoff:** To bed, young lady!!

Anna rolled her eyes.

> **Anna:** I fell asleep on the floor. Good enough.
> 
> **Kristoff:** Sure, if you wanna spend tomorrow feeling like a troll’s been sleeping on your back.

Anna groaned. She hated it when Kristoff was right and so far he’d been nothing  _ but _ right. Sighing, she pushed herself onto her feet and walked down the hall to the bedroom. She opened the door and peeked in. Anna’s clothing, textbooks, games,  _ everything _ had been tossed haphazardly around the floor. The bed was still empty, blankets made perfectly.

She still hadn’t slept in it even after Elsa left.

Didn’t feel right.

Anna bit her lip and hugged her phone to her chest. Maybe Kristoff was right. Maybe she needed to just… talk to Elsa. Was it really that simple? Just talk? After everything? It had been almost a month.

Anna took a trembling breath and stared at her phone. She brought up her contacts and scrolled down to Elsa’s number.

And then just kinda stared at it.

She stood there for a few minutes. The ticking of the clock became a rhythmic reminder of the passing time, and with that, her time being awake as well. Even amidst her panic, her eyes were fluttering closed when her phone buzzed loudly in her hand once more, startling her.

It was Kristoff again.

> **Kristoff:** BED!!

Anna sighed. Determination welled up inside of her and she made a decision.

> **Anna:** Bed later. Elsa comes first.

She brought Elsa’s number up again and looked at the time. 6:17 pm. It was Sunday so Elsa was either just getting home from work or had the day off. But then again… this was  _ Elsa _ she was dealing with. Anna wouldn’t put it past her to be working at home until some ungodly hour.

And if she was handling things as well as Anna was…

She sighed, walking out to the living room as she started typing.

> **Anna:** Hey, Elsa, it’s me.

And then she stopped.

Fuck, what should she write?

Anna groaned and pulled at her hair. She had to think up something.

> **Anna:** I miss you and I really wanna talk to you.

Fantastic.

“On a scale of pathetic to hopeless,” Anna muttered under her breath, “how much do I suck at making up with my girlfriend.”

She erased everything and started over.

> **Anna:** Hi, Elsa. It’s been a while and… I miss you. I would really like to see you again. Can we give it another shot? I’ll make us dinner. Please?

Anna stopped and looked over what she had typed. It wasn’t perfect, but she wasn’t sure if she could write anything that sounded even remotely well put-together after a month of not talking.

She sighed and pressed the send button.

Her phone felt heavy in the palm of her hand. She set it on the table and sat down on the couch, hands clenched and trembling in her lap. Her heart was racing and it was hard to get her breathing under control.

Anna closed her eyes and waited.

* * *

“Okay… red wine or white wine?”

Anna stood in front of the bottles of different wine, looking from one to the next. She had no idea what she was looking for, and it was starting to frustrate her. Elsa was the expert when it came to picking wine than Anna, who greatly preferred beer and hard liquor—much to Elsa’s distaste, she remembered with a half-grimace, half-smirk.

So she was completely out of her element here.

Anna  _ could _ have asked Elsa for her input, but she would rather avoid texting her unless absolutely needed. She thought back to their… conversation, if it could even be called that, and bit her lip in worry. Elsa had kept her waiting fifteen minutes for a response, during which she busied herself with cleaning the apartment: the kitchen, the dining area, the living room—although she avoided the bedroom—making everything look as neat and presentable and un-Anna-fied as possible. When Elsa finally responded, it was a rather terse, “I’ll be over at 9.” Anna tried to call her, figuring it would be easier to set up the… date? It was basically a date, right? A very, very awkward date.

But Elsa wouldn’t answer her calls.

So Anna ignored the hurt that bunched up in the pit of her chest and sent another text, asking what she would like to eat.

That was roughly an hour ago. Anna had given up on a response from Elsa and decided to go forward with her own plans. She settled on lasagna rolls, remembering their first date with a blush and rather goofy grin on her face as she went about gathering the ingredients for their dinner, trying not to think about the painfully silent phone in her back pocket.

Speaking of which, if she wasn’t going to ask Elsa, maybe she should ask someone else. But she really didn’t wanna get anyone else involved in this. Maybe Kristoff? No, he was just as useless regarding wine as she was.

Maybe she could just… look it up? Yeah, she could probably find something that sounded good.

“I’m pretty sure we just had soda on our first date.” Anna grumbled to herself as she fished her phone out of her pocket. Digging through internet searches, food recipes and websites, she eventually found a recommendation.

“Alright, internet,” she said as she plucked the bottle off the shelf and placed it in the basket, “don’t fail me now.” 

Anna looked everything over. She had everything she needed. All the ingredients, the wine–everything. Her stomach tied into knots. Hopefully Elsa was okay with this.

_ Well, she better be. I can’t wait around for her to tell me what she wants to eat all night. _

Maybe she should still make sure.

Sighing, Anna took her phone and brought up Elsa’s number.

> **Anna:** I’m gonna make lasagna rolls! Like what we had on our first date. :3 Does that sound good?

And then she waited.

Standing around in in the grocery store, next to the shelves stacked with different types of wine… staring at her phone like some lovesick teenager.

She waited for a minute.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

“Well,” she sighed, placing the phone in her back pocket and trying her hardest not to get  _ too _ upset, “I’m sure she’ll be fine with it. Elsa loves lasagna.”

Anna reached the self-checkout and ran each item through the scanner, listening to the beeping and chattering surrounding her, trying hard not to pay attention to the beating of her own heart. She paid with her card and started to bag everything when her phone buzzed, sending her jumping about a foot into the air. She hissed nervously and pulled out her phone.

> **Elsa:** Sounds fine.

Anna stared at her phone for a while. She really didn’t know how to take that. Sure, it was Elsa giving her approval, but Anna had learned to tell the difference between Elsa giving her approval out of genuine interest and Elsa giving her approval because…

She just didn’t care.

Anna swallowed down the lump in her throat and blinked away the burning feeling in her eyes. She shook her head. Elsa had responded at least. Now she wouldn’t have to second-guess her dinner choice.

> **Anna:** Awesome! I’ll see you at 9. :)

“Alright, Anna,” she pocketed her phone and gripped the bag tightly. She took a deep, steadying breath, willing herself to calm down as she walked out the store. “Go home and get dinner ready and try not to freak out too much.”

She looked up at the sky and tried not to think too much of where Elsa was, what she might have been doing at that moment.

_ I can do this. I’m ready. I was born ready! _

* * *

Anna was full to bursting with energy.

She was staring herself over in the mirror, giving herself one last look. Some nice snug jeans with a form-fitting open-sleeve blouse to match. Her hair was done up in an immaculate bun, bangs swept back just over her eyes. And her make-up—Anna hadn’t had an excuse to do her make-up in a while, and she had forgotten just how much  _ fun _ it could actually be. The excitement was almost too much to bear and the ear-splitting, overly-peppy smile she flashed herself  _ actually _ felt genuine.

For once in over a month, she was excited. Confident. This was going to go fine. Great, even! They were going to have a good time and…

And…

And Anna needed to go out and set the table and stop staring at herself in the mirror.

Anna sighed and shook her head. She turned away from the bathroom mirror and walked out towards the dining area. The food was ready, and cooked very well, she might add. Anna wasn’t totally a slouch in cooking, though she still did prefer food of the fast and microwaved variety to standing in front of a stove or oven. But she still felt a wave of pride as she set the table and covered their plates in delicious lasagna rolls, salad, and garlic bread. She placed the wine glasses down, setting the bottle in the middle of the table, and then she sat down and waited.

Anna checked the clock.

8:50 pm.

Elsa would be here any minute, and yet she hadn’t sent a single text since Anna left the store. Worry gnawed at Anna’s insides and doubt wriggled at the back of her mind, but she did her best to ignore it. Elsa would show up. She told Anna she was gonna show up.

“She’ll be here,” Anna whispered to herself, staring down at the warm, delicious-looking food she had made. Her mouth watered but she shook her head. She would wait for Elsa. “Elsa’ll be here.”

_ She has to. _

* * *

9:00 pm.

Anna kept looking from the clock to her phone to the food back to the clock. Elsa would be here any moment. She was half-expecting to hear the knock at the door, and every now and then she found herself standing up from the table and walking up to the door, looking through the peep-hole outside.

No sign of Elsa.

_ It’s only 9. I mean, I can’t expect Elsa to be here at  _ exactly _ 9\. I mean, I know it’s kind of a habit of hers to be ten minutes early, or at least on time, but this is… _

Anna sighed and walked back to the table, rapping her knuckles together. “It’s fine, she’ll be here. You need to stop being so nervous, honestly. It’s just a date… with Elsa.”

She sat down and stared at the food. It had been out for ten minutes. Maybe she should heat it up, Elsa would be here soon. She took a deep breath, trying to settle the nerves in her stomach as she took the food and crossed the kitchen to the oven. As she let it heat up, she took a look at the clock.

9:02 pm. 

Anna sighed and shook her head. “Honestly, Anna, give it a rest. She’ll  _ be _ here.”

_ I hope. _

* * *

 

9:30 pm.

Anna was pacing the floor, food forgotten.

“This isn’t good,” she was muttering, pacing back and forth, flapping her hands as she shot the door worried glances. “This isn’t good, this isn’t good. She’s never this late.”

The one time Anna could remember Elsa being late was she showed up ten minutes late to class once because she had come down with a rather nasty cold the night before. Even then, she had practically blown up Anna’s phone telling her to tell the professor she’d be there and ten minutes to thirty minutes with no word as to why is  _ not _ even remotely the same thing…

Was Elsa just… not going to show up?

Did she change her mind? Did she decide it wasn’t worth it?

“No.” Anna told herself firmly, seating herself back at the table to check her phone. “Elsa wouldn’t tell me one thing and then do something else.”

She brought up Elsa’s number for the Nth time that day. The last text message was still her own from when she left the store. She took a trembling sigh and began to type.

> **Anna:** Is the traffic that bad? :P

That was good, right? Fairly unassuming and trying to keep a good humor about the situation, considering what it looked like. Anna placed the phone back on the table and stole a look at the clock.

9:37 pm.

She’d give Elsa another fifteen minutes.

* * *

10:01 pm.

> **Anna:** Elsa, what’s going on.

10:23 pm.

> **Anna:** /You/ were the one who said 9:00.

10:45 pm.

> **Anna:** Elsa, please…

* * *

11:10 pm.

Anna sat there at the table; she hadn’t moved in almost two hours. Staring at the ceiling, her eyes burning. Streams of tears had long since dried up on her cheeks, leaving her face feeling chapped and sore. Her bangs fell in disarray over her eyes, hair having long been pulled out of its bun, pulled at and mussed up in crying fits and panic attacks. She sniffed and rubbed numbly at her face, moving in slow motion. There was a dead weight in her chest that made it hard to move, a hurt that sank deep into the pit of her stomach and spread to the tips of her fingers and the soles of her feet.

She was tired and hurt and numb and miserable and she just didn’t know  _ what  _ to do.

Anna looked to the cold uneaten food, a dinner she had put her whole day into, a dinner Elsa promised her she would show up to. Anger flared and her fists clenched; her eyes misted and she felt her chest rise with a sudden shaking breath.

She could feel the sob coming back up. She tried to push it down; she couldn’t keep crying. Her head was hurting, throbbing, her face was a mess of dried tears and ruined make-up, and she was just so tired. But the more she stared at the uneaten dinner, at the forgotten wine bottle, at the ticking clock and the empty chair across from her, the angrier she got, the more she second-guessed herself, the more she just.

_ She can’t even say I didn’t try this time because I fucking tried. _

There was a strangled sound in the back of her throat as she choked down a sob and there was no stopping the flood of tears. It was quiet at first, the trembling of shoulders and heaving chest, but the dam broke as Anna fell forward and cradled her head and a pitiful cry broke past her lips and into the fractured emptiness of the apartment space.

Anna had to accept facts.

Elsa wasn’t coming.

_And I was an idiot for thinking I could fix this._  

* * *

 

12:25 am.

Elsa had been standing there for ten minutes, frozen.

The door,  _ that _ door, a door she hadn’t stood in front of in a long time. A harsh pang gripped at her insides at the thought—it had been almost a month now. The memory of walking down those steps was still fresh in her mind as if it happened that very same day.

And now that door loomed in front of her, the rest of the world invisible, unimportant, out of her mind.

A part of her mind was screaming at her; she shouldn’t be here. Ever since she got that text—hands trembling, heart racing, eyes widened in both horror and shock, the words  _ no _ and  _ yes _ both a chanting chorus in the back of her head—her day had been a marathon of conflicting emotions. Of longing, of want, of pain, of hurt, of anger, of sadness, of desperation, of excitement, of guilt. Elsa didn’t even know where to begin to sort it all out.

She had tried to convince herself several times throughout the month that it was over, but the aching part of her soul fought back hard. There were too many things left unsaid, and Anna didn’t deserve being left hanging like that, uncertain of what their future would hold. Neither of them deserved this silence.

And yet she still had managed to find a way to avoid it. It’s what she was good at. Avoiding until, eventually, there was nothing to return to.

Anna, however, being her Anna-self, was never good at avoiding anything.

Elsa felt her lips quirk into a smile at the memories of Anna, faced with a problem, facing it head-on with all the grace of an angered bull. Anna helped Elsa become more forward, more willing to engage in conflict.

In the end, she may have helped Elsa with this particular problem a little too well.

Elsa sighed and ran a hand down her face. Anna’s last text message burned into the back of her head and the guilt continued to eat away at what was left of her. She knew she had told Anna she’d meet at 9 but yet she still battled with herself, fighting over the insanity of this… this meet-up, what Anna likely thought of as a date. And with every minute that slowly,  _ achingly _ turned into hours, Elsa found herself losing the battle to just turn away.

Elsa stared up at the door, at the familiar apartment, and the memories came flooding back.

It was wrong of her to play with Anna’s emotions like this.

If she didn’t wanna show up, she should have just said no.

It would have been easier than this.

She needed to just… just…

_ Just knock! _

Elsa sucked in a breath and slowly brought a trembling hand forward. It hovered there, curled into a fist, until every thought in her head was  _ screaming _ at her to get it over with, and she knocked.

Her heart was pounding a nauseating rhythm against the inside of her chest.

_ What am I gonna say? What am I gonna tell her? Hi, sorry, I’m so late, I had a minor mental meltdown, but I’m all good now! _

She was wracking her brain for any possible excuses she could offer up, so stuck deep in the circling thought process, in the panic, that a few minutes went by before she realized she was still just standing there. In front of the door. All alone.

She knocked again.

A minute passed. Still nobody answered.

Elsa sighed. She couldn’t say that she wasn’t surprised, but that didn’t stop the incessant worry that gripped her heart and brought it sinking down to the bottom of her stomach like a ton of lead. One half of her mind was going down a list of potential horrible reasons why Anna wasn’t answering while the other was screaming at her to take this excuse to leave, but Elsa couldn’t leave like this. She just couldn’t.

Elsa rummaged through her purse for her keys, ignoring the doubt that lingered at the back of her mind. She came upon the right one immediately, easily recognizing it, and the familiarity of the whole situation and where she was standing brought a wave of both pleasant and unpleasant memories.

But when she went to try the knob she discovered…

It was already unlocked.

Elsa frowned.  _ Honestly, Anna…? I thought I broke her out of that habit, it’s so unsafe! _

Someone could have come in! All this time left unlocked, anything could have happened, and while it’s not like Anna couldn’t protect herself, she was still  _ alone _ and—

And Elsa wasn’t going to dwell on that last thought for one more second. Nope. She resolutely shut off that thought process and pushed the door open.

“Anna?”

She whispered it, still not sure if she  _ wanted _ an answer, but it sounded loud in the dead silence of the apartment. It was dark, all the lights off, and when she shut the door and locked it, it plummeted everything into an even deeper pitch blackness. Elsa sighed and began making her way through the foyer, carefully so as not to trip over any of Anna’s shoes. Only she found to her surprise that there were no shoes scattered across the floor—in fact, the way was completely clear, the floor spotless.

_ That’s not something you see everyday, _ she thought as she walked over to the closet and opened it. She found Anna’s shoes and jackets there, all put away neat and orderly and out of the way. She stood there for a moment, blinking in surprise. Some strange emotion welled up inside her, something she recognized and understood but still couldn’t quite name, and sent her heart fluttering.

She shook her head and forced herself out of the reverie. Elsa pulled her jacket off and put it on a coat hanger, taking off her shoes and pushing them to the edge of the wall along with the others.

“Anna?” she called out again, louder this time, as she closed the closet door behind her. An apology burned at the tip of her tongue but she swallowed it back down. She could say she knew how late she was, she could say she was sorry until the sun was up, but it wouldn’t matter. “Anna, where are you?”

Still no answer.

Elsa set about navigating the dark space, her memory locating everything in spite of her lack of vision. She crossed the threshold into the living room and walked to the couch. Elsa could already tell there was nobody in this room, a weird niggling little feeling that a quick inspection confirmed. But what she found made her stop in place, her mile-a-minute thought processes pause: a blanket folded across the back of the couch, with bed pillows—and  _ throw pillows? _ —piled on one side.

Was… had Anna been  _ sleeping _ there?

_ Why on earth would she…? _

Elsa stepped back, biting her lip. She had to find Anna. Thinking about it, the other woman had probably already gone to bed, so the bedroom would be her next place to visit. But before she could make her way down the hall, she heard a sound that tugged at her heartstrings.

Elsa looked towards the dining area. It was blanketed in darkness like the rest of the apartment but her vision had cleared just enough to make out a silhouette seated at the table. Elsa took a trembling breath, wringing her hands as she took a few uneasy steps forward. She reached for the light switch and turned it on, blinking as the sudden brightness hurt her eyes.

Anna was slumped over at the dining table, fast asleep. Her head was turned away, cradled by her arms, but Elsa could tell by the occasional sniffles and trembling shoulders that it was a very restless sleep. Her left hand was slightly outstretched, reaching for a used, red-tinted wine glass and half-empty wine bottle. Other than that, though, a quick survey of the table showed that the cold food was completely untouched; in fact, it looked as if Anna had pushed the plates away. Elsa moved around and felt despair roll over her at the sight of Anna’s face, tear-stained and make-up running, brow furrowed and lips moving in broken, barely audible muttering.

_ You did this. _

_ You did this to her. _

Elsa ran a hand through her hair. She should have never agreed to this dinner. Doing so only made things worse. Coming here only made things worse. What was she thinking, that she could show up and somehow make all this heartbreak go away.

Elsa started to turn to leave.

“…Els…”

She froze.

Her heart felt as if it would crack into a thousand pieces. Staring at Anna’s trembling form, hearing the tear-stained whimpers as she slept on.

“Please… stay…”

Elsa swallowed down a sob and bit down on a nail. Over and over again in her head, the thought played on repeat,  _ You did this, you did this, you did this, _ and she edged closer to where Anna sat slumped over. A trembling hand reached out. She couldn’t leave Anna like this, she had to fix this. She could stand to do this much for her—

She stopped just short of Anna’s shoulder.

_ What do I say? _

She blinked back furious tears.

_ What  _ can _ I say? _

Her hand stayed there, hovering over her shoulder, and she found herself unable to go further. A thousand different emotions struggled and fought for dominance. Flashes of memories of the past few months burned into the back of her eyes. Doubt and anger and hurt clawed at her stomach, twisted and nested in the hole of her chest. A lump formed in her throat and she could not make it go away. She could not rid herself of the whispers carved into the back of her skull.

Elsa retracted her hand, clenching it tight on the front of her shirt.

There remained this impenetrable wall between them, nothing but a crack in the mortar to give Elsa the view of her handiwork. Anna crying herself to sleep, drunk and heartbroken and gods knew what else. But no matter how much she wanted to bring it all crashing down, something held her back. A month’s worth of uncertainty and silence, the anger and hurt of it all leaving them both so close,  _ so unbearably close… _

Elsa sighed and stumbled back into the closest chair. She rested her arms on the table, holding her head up with one hand as she watched Anna tremble and twitch in her sleep, listened to her desperate pleas.

_ What are we going to do…? _


End file.
